


The Dark That Consumes Us

by DeathDirt



Series: Dark Turtles (2012) [1]
Category: TMNT (2012), TMNT - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 13:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathDirt/pseuds/DeathDirt
Summary: It seems as if some new enemies are joining the fray alongside the Foot clan. Are they too much for the brothers in green?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Shadows in the Dark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3289928) by [FanGirlStephie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanGirlStephie/pseuds/FanGirlStephie). 



> I know I've done a 2014 Dark turtle work already, but I think I'd like to do a 2012 version as well. I'm going to have this as the starting point for a series rather than the 2014 one because, being totally honest, I'm not as well versed in the 2014 characters. It may seem weird, but I have two GIANT pet peeves that I just can't stand seeing - misspelled words, and out-of-character writing. Now and again, for a smut fic or a mind-control fic, I'm ALL for that, but when it's my own stuff, I just can't stand it.
> 
> Also, this is taking place prior to Turtles In Space and the mutation of Super Shredder, somewhere in mid-season 2 or mid-3, so it's a little ways back from where the show's currently at. Ps: OMG TOKKA IS SUCH A OOD MOMMY AND CHOMPY PICASSO IS SO CUTE OMGOMGOMGGGGGG

Days and days of nothing but the occasional Kraang to beat up. Leo _knew_ keeping his team on task was a chore. Anymore, he was scouting on his own while his brothers sat around doing...eh. Leo didn't care sometimes. He wasn't bitter or anything, but it was a more familial and knowing 'eh' that made him go out on his own. The same 'eh' that made him smile when Mikey kept badgering Raph, when Spike used to bite on Donnie when they were little, and the same 'eh' that made him forgive his brothers for whatever they did to him that might've seemed stupid at the time. Nothing came up. Despite that, Leo decided to make another run around the perimeter of the neighborhood, just in case. As a ninja turtle do.

He felt perfectly free outside. The cool night air, the wind rushing by while he ran and jumped from building to building, the air of danger that always surrounded these recons... Call him a masochist, but he loved the thought of danger around any corner. Maybe he was just weird like that. Regardless, he leapt and jumped and flipped, having quite possibly the best time in his life.

From high above, in the shadow of one of the taller buildings in New York, a shadow watched. A single golden orb watched from the shadows. Looking down on the whooping, hollering leader, its cat-like pupil contracted into a barely visible slit. With a breathy laugh, a set of pearly white teeth appeared in a grin beneath the steadily staring eye. This shadow would not be content to watch. This shadow was hungry...

-

Mikey and Raph playfully batted at one another as they raced to the dojo, followed at a safe distance by April and Donatello. Splinter was inside waiting for them, watching as they filed in and kneeled in their usual lineup. The old master tilted his head when his fourth son didn't show himself. He was almost always the first one in. "Where is Leonardo?" Raphael shrugged. "He said he went out for a recon."  
"We offered to go with him, Sensei," Donnie said, trying to keep his brother clear of any suspicion, "but he just said not to worry about it." Maybe it was paranoid of him to believe the worst, considering how seriously Leonardo always took his training compared to his brothers, but Splinter had learned over 15 years that being a father was either 90% love or 90% worry. It still took some time to figure out which was the correct one...

"No training." The foursome snapped to attention. "Find your brother. I feel that he may be in more danger than we assume."

-

The brothers hurried across the rooftops. April trailed behind, so the three brothers did their best to keep a slow pace. "Guys? Are we just gonna not talk about what Splinter said?" Donnie and Raph threw glares to their little brother. " _Because_ , Mikey, there's nothing to talk about. Splinter thinks Leo might be in trouble, we're tracking his T-phone, and we're gonna find him. That's it." Donnie rolled his eyes as he ended his comment and looked down at his own phone again. They weren't far behind their brother. Another building or two and they should be able to see him. "Come on guys, last stretch. Leo's a few buildings ahead of us!" The four teens landed on the said building their fifth member was supposedly on, coming to a skidding stop. "Huh..."  
"Huh, what, Donnie? I thought you said he was here?" Donnie fiddled around with his T-phone for a few minutes. Something was jamming the signal and causing the screen to freak out. 

"Hey, guys! Looking for me?" Leo popped over the edge of the roof, smiling as he approached the turtles and human. "Yeah, Splinter said you might be in trouble because you didn't come around for training. You okay?" Leo waved them all off. "Yeah, I'm fine. I found a warehouse while I was scouting around and I was about to call you. There's all kinds of Kraang going in and out. C'mon, it's not too far off, let's go!" Leonardo waved for them to follow him and they all ran after him. He wasn't wrong. About five blocks later and they were all peering down at a warehouse. There wasn't much going in or out unlike what he'd said, but that didn't mean much. "I didn't get a great look, but I think there's some important Kraang stuff in there. You guys ready?"

Everybody nodded in unison and followed their leader to the roof of the warehouse. They all snuck to an open portion of the roof, just barely big enough for a turtle to _squeeze_ through if they tried. It took a little bit of time for the four turtles to get through, but they were quick about it all the same. Leo leaped down from the steel beams that supported the roof to the floor of the warehouse, swinging his gaze left and right. The others followed him, silently drawing their weapons and keeping close. A soft whoosh passed by and Mikey was gone. Everybody looked back in surprise, tensing up even more.

"Leo, c'mon, this is gettin' weird. And I don't see any Kraang stuff anyway." Leonardo was unresponsive. The three others turned toward their leader, surprised that he wasn't doing anything. Another soft whoosh and Donnie was gone with a quick yelp. Raph and April were on their guard, but that didn't stop another unexplained noise grabbing April and pulling her into the shadows. Raph was hesitant to do so, but he turned back to Leo, grabbing his shoulder and swinging him around. "Leo! What the heck's going on?! What's wrong with you?!" Leo blinked. Then he did it again. The second time, his bright blue iris turned harsh yellow, and the round pupil was replaced with a vertical slit. It expanded to accommodate for the light, making him look like a hungry predator. "I don't know, Raphael. What _is_ going on?" He grinned, showing two rows of sharp, predatory teeth. Raphael had no idea how to react as he was shoved and pinned down by a single knee. The fake-Leo laughed. He hit something on the side of his head and the disguise was gone. Green skin replaced with electric blue, his left eye was now an electronic piece, and he no longer had any semblance to the real Leonardo past his face.

"What the-"  
"Nighty-night, Raphael. Sweet dreams." The blue turtle's fist hammered down on the turtle and his vision went black.

\- 

Leonardo woke slowly. It took a long time for his eyesight to clear up and adjust, but he did his best to sit up. As his vision focused, he saw his brothers lying around him in the small dark place they were held. The whole ordeal was broken bits and pieces, but Leo felt like he knew everything that had happened. He remembered a strange blue thing running at him, throwing some kind of smoke or powder at his face, the sort of blacking out. He was conscious through most of it, at least he thought he was, but it wasn't all...there. He remembered being carried a long way, being dropped, then a gravelly, rocky voice talking to him in a low tone about life and creation or something else really poetic and weird like that. The whole thing was just strange, and it was hard to piece it all together.

One of his brothers groaned a bit. Leo's mind was brought immediately back from the present. He hurriedly crawled over to his brothers, pulling them closer and shaking them, hitting them, doing everything he could do as quietly as he could to wake them up. They were all completely unresponsive, except for Mikey. All he did was swat at Leo's hands. There came the little 'eh' again. Now was not the time, though. They all needed to get up and be at the ready. Now with both hands, Leo was outright shoving his brothers to wake them up. He was shoving Mikey so hard that he flipped him over. "They're not getting up." Leo's back straightened. The voice. The same one that had gone so oddly poetic and philosophical about life. Leo looked around for a minute until he finally settled on a figure that leaned against one of the building's main supports from the other side of what seemed to be a cage door that Leo hadn't noticed before.

"What?"  
"They're not getting up, any of them. Not for another thirty minutes, at least. Probably more. And that's only _if_ there's anything left of them to wake."  
"What're you talking about? If you touch them-"  
"Please. Do you really need an introduction to a damsel-in-distress hostage situation? You idiots are in here, being relatively well taken care of. Your big bad daddy rat's in the sewer. And you know what they say." The figure leaned back and locked his fingers behind his head. "What goes down must come up." Leo felt his breath coming out of his mouth with nothing to replace it. It was no surprise to him that he'd gotten captured - Karai had done the same thing not but a few weeks ago. No, he was so shocked because this thing wanted his father. Leo hated the thought of acting as bait. It almost disgusted him. He steeled himself, setting his jaw. "He won't fall for that trick."

The other male chuckled. "You'd better hope he does. Because if nobody decides to come from the sewers while your alive, then your use will be null and void. And at that point, you'll be nothing but bones in a matter of hours. Hope you enjoy the afterlife." Leo saw now that this strange new thing was another turtle. The moon had decided to show itself from behind the thick veil of clouds, giving him a silvery outline. Leo finally got a good look at him and found that he was shocked once again.

In the body and the face, this turtle looked almost exactly like him, but with electric-blue scales rather than his softer, leafy green. Leo managed to make out a black mask where his blue one would be and bright yellow eyes with pupils like a cats, narrow and predatory. His mask looked more torn and tattered than Raphael's, which was saying something. Some odd material was stretched over his legs, ending a little ways over his waist, showing that he was actually a little skinny compared to Leonardo, himself. Protruding over his left shoulder were two handles, most likely attached to some blades, and his left eye was an electronic piece instead of another yellow eye. From what he could see of the turtle's arms, there were what appeared to be gauntlets or detached sleeves of some kind over his forearms, reaching in a trio of points around his elbow and on the underside of his bicep. This guy was something truly terrifying to behold, especially with Leo crouched over, and the shadows falling just so, so that the centerline of the turtle was shrouded in dark. 

"What...are you?"  
"I thought you'd never ask. I'm Dark Leonardo. And let me emphasize the first half - _Dark_. I may look like you, maybe sound like you a bit. But trust me when I say we have nothing in common. We couldn't be any more different." Leo frowned. He wasn't totally sure how to take this. After he recovered from his initial shock, took in everything Dark Leonardo had to say, it was awfully confusing. A 'Dark' Leonardo? Either this guy was very uncreative or something was severely wrong. "Why are you doing this? Do you not have anything in you that's telling you how wrong this is?" Dark Leo laughed in that breathy way of his. He liked hearing himself laugh. It was soft, menacing, deep. "As a matter of fact, I don't. And for your information-"  
"None of that's for him to know." Leo knew exactly who it was before she even stepped into view. "Karai. Good to see you're putting your kidnapping skills to good use."

She snickered at the comment. "And you're putting your idiocy skills to good use, too. I'm honestly surprised, Leo. I thought you'd be the last one to get caught" Karai took a few steps towards the blue mutant. "But, I guess Dark Leo here was right. You really aren't as smart as you think you are." Leo couldn't make the blush that appeared on his cheeks go away as he began to stutter, "Y-you two...you d-don't..." While Karai stared in utter confusion, Dark Leonardo snorted and giggled. "O-oh, it's too cute, it's just too cute! Tell me you're getting this Karai, please." The girl crossed her arms and stared at the turtle with a raised eyebrow. "He thinks you and I have feelings for each other." Karai's eyes went wide fro a moment before she broke out in hard laughter. "You've _got_ to be joking? Really?" Leo looked away, blush spreading to more of his face. "No, I think I'll stick to skinning reptiles rather than loving on them. Even if Dark Leo isn't as stuck-up and one-sided as you are, he's more of a little brother to me. Unlike O'Neil... Speaking of which, Blue, go check on her. Father asked to keep an eye on your brother in case he developed a soft spot for the carrot-head." Dark Leo shrugged nonchalantly and walked off to do as she told him. 

Karai turned to Leonardo, giving him that infuriatingly smug look she always had on. "How do you like your competition, Leonardo? Not bad, huh?" Leo glared at her. To think that he used to like her. And maybe still did... "He's not so bad." She was giving him that smile. That aggravating, knowing, pompous, rich-girl smile. The one she'd give someone that was about to eat something that'd been poisoned without them knowing. "Good. Then I'm sure you'll love to know that there's three more of them." Leonardo had been working himself into a standing position, and now he took a step back. _Four_ dark turtles? One might not be too bad, but _four_? That would be near-impossible with his brothers out of commission. He might've only been able to sit and wait this one out. There was a noise coming from behind him. Leo turned to see that Raphael was starting to push himself onto all fours and rushed to help him. "Raph? Hey, you okay?" The muscled turtle groaned again, nodding. "Yeah Leo, 'm fine, 'm fine. Urgh..." Leo wrapped his arms around Raphael's and heaved him up to his feet. 

Raphael rubbed his eyes, which spent a few moments contracting and relaxing before finally focusing upon the leader. "Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute! Who are you?!" Raph stumbled back, trying to lower into a defensive stance. Leo shook his head. "Raph, calm down. We all got captured. Just listen-" Raphael threw a wild jab at his brother's chest. Leo deflected the blow and slid a foot behind him, ready to defend against anything his brother wanted to throw at him.The red-masked turtle took in a deep breath and threw a flurry of jabs and punches at the older. Leo dodged and deflected all of them with relative ease, but he began to get irritated. He needed Raphael to stop fighting and start helping them all get out. Especially since April was supposedly being held somewhere in the building. "Raph, stop it! What's wrong with you?!" Leo half-growled in annoyance at his brother. The hothead swung at his brother again, which Leo grabbed. "Listen to me, will you?"  
"No way! You're here to take us to one of our enemies, aren't you? Where's Leo?!" Leonardo huffed, bopping his brother between the eyes. "Look, you meathead, it's me! What's gotten into you?" Raphael grumbled. It was much too soon for him to accept this right away. "Alright, whatever. What's going on?" 

Leo looked over his shoulder to see if Karai was still watching, but she had left long ago. Hopefully off to tend to whatever Dark Leo was dealing with, but the leader kept his voice down all the same. "Karai's here, and she's got these weird mutants with her. There's four of them, but I've only seen one so far. The one looks a lot like me and sounds a like me. I think it's one to take on each of us, but I've got no idea where they are." Raphael crossed his arms and huffed. "Then what's the plan? That's all background."  
"For now, it's just get Donnie up so he can pick the lock and then Mikey so we can find April and get out." The dark scaled turtle looked surprised. "She wasn't with you when you woke up?" Leo shook his head, motioning out the barred side of the cell container. "No, but I think she's out there. Karai said she wanted to check on one of the other mutants in case he got soft because of April. But, first things first. Let's try to get Donnie up so we can bust out."

Hoping that they were being allowed some privacy for the time being, the elder pair of turtles set to work trying to wake the genius turtle. Leo did what he could to wake Donnie up, with advice from Raph (begrudgingly taken), but he had a hard time of it. While Leo worked on Don, Raph kept wailing on Mikey to wake him up. Donnie woke first, after only a few minutes of slapping and shaking. "Ow, ow, ow, geez guys! I oversleep one day, _one freaking day_ , and you try to knock my head off!" The elder pair of brothers instantly began to shush the smart one. While Leo debriefed him and set him to work on the lock, Raph continued his efforts to wake up the youngest brother. ...Unsuccessful, to say the least. As Don got the picking of the lock underway, Leo and Raph left Mikey to wake up on his own, in stead investigating the rest of their 'cell'. In reality, all it was was a big shipping container that had gotten one side cut out and replaced with prison bars. Donnie worked for what seemed to be hours, though in reality it was mere minutes that he took.

The lock clicking open was much louder than they'd all expected. At first, they didn't move, barely dared to breathe, all on instinct. But, they quickly realized that this was a bad idea, considering they were unarmed and down two members of the team. Thusly, they bolted from their containment, combing through the side of the building they were on to look for their weapons. Leo found them on the catwalk directly above the shipping container - oddly enough - put away neatly and meticulously cleaned. In fact, when he looked at his katanas, they seemed to shine and be more mirrors than blades. Nevertheless, Leo grabbed his brothers' weapons and handed them over - Donnie, his bo staff; Raphael, his sai; and Leo decided it would be best to simple keep Mikey's nunchaku in his belt until he decided to wake up. 

There was an eerie, unnatural quietness that encompassed the building while the three conscious brothers regrouped on the ground floor of the warehouse and kept vigilant watch for the other mutants. The three of them were tensed and ready to fight, but Karai and the other turtles should have gotten there sooner. It was too convenient for them to be so far behind. Instead they waited for a long while, with nothing disturbing the silence. That's all that there was. Silence.

That only put them further on edge. The only time anybody or anything moved was when Mikey came out of the cell, yawning and stretching, complaining that his face was stinging (no thanks to Raphael's constant slapping), and was promptly hushed by the three older brothers. Leo handed his baby brother his weapons, but he didn't seem too keen on staying tensed up and on the defensive. "C'mon uys, this is kinda dumb. Why're we doin' this anyway?" Leonardo glared at him, but it seemed that the other two weren't far behind. "Naaah, dumb's when you do something like give away your hiding spot!" A short moment of silence, then a loud smack. "Oo _ooowwwww_! Stop hittin' me! What? ...Wait. ...Oooooooohhh, I get it. Eugh... Oops." With their element of surprise gone, the dark turtles leapt down from their dark hiding place, landing heavily in front of the four brothers.

Raph was the first one to comment (as per usual). "Look at this frickin' ugly party!"  
"You're one to talk, pretty-boy!" The speaker was the dark red one. He had a black mask on, same as Dark Leonardo, but, as to be expected by his color, he was Raphael's doppelganger rather than Leo's. With two points rising over his shoulders, presumably spikes on his shell, and gigantic talons where his middle fingers would have been, this guy was more monstrous and scary looking than the first dark turtle. He also had similar dark clothing on his legs, but it ended before it could get to his plastron. Rather, there were two pairs of the same material in spike shapes curving up and in, towards his chest. Not only that, but he also had marks running in an alternating pattern down his arms that almost looked liked scarred, shredded flesh, sue to their darker color compared to the rest of him. On his left arm, there was some kind of metal plate, devoid of any feature except for a small cluster of buttons near his wrist and a clasp on the inside of his arm.

As for the two remaining turtles, they had similar, horrifying, monster-movie-esque designs as well. To the red's left was a violet turtle, spikes protruding from the top of his head and an upward-spiking carapace. Two plates of metal covered some of his jaw and neck, along with metal gauntlets that curved inward past the elbow and covered his forelimbs. Just like Dark Leo and the red mutant, he had dark fabric over his legs, one set that began in points over his knees that came up and inward over his stomach and a second set that went from between his toes to extend and meet higher up in the middle of his calves. This one's oddity, like blue's electronic eye, or red's markings, was a lizard-like tail lazily swishing behind him. 

To that one's left was the final dark turtle. He was yellow with a very slight dark hint to it, but definitely not as easy on the eyes in the dark interior of the warehouse as the other three turtles. The final turtle had the dark fabric over the entirety of his thighs that only went down to round over his knees. In another dual spike-shape, the fabric reached up into points midway through his second scute. Contrasting to the violet turtle's carapace, the yellow turtle's spiked downwards. He had thin metal gauntlets over his forearms, not as prominent as the purple one's, more akin to the red's gauntlet, and just as lacking in features other than a few buttons and lines outlining the near-seamless attachment of metal. On his shoulders and extending to his mid-bicep was more of the dark fabric. Crossed over his carapace, the turtles could see the heads of bladed maces peeking up from over his shell. His cheeks were adorned by a pair of freckles on each side, imitating Mikey's trios, and, almost as if he was trying to take Mikey's most annoying trait something physical, he had a long tongue that poked out from between his lips every now and then.

"How do you four like your twins?" Karai called down from her place on the catwalk. "What? You can't call those things anywhere near _our_ twins!" Donatello yelled to her. "I already did," was her coy reply. "How about family introductions? Dark Leonardo in blue, Dark Raphael in red, Dark Donatello in purple, and Dark Michelangelo in the tongue." Dark Mikey started laughing, but immediately realized the joke was on him and quieted down with a subdued 'oh'. The double set of four turtles each faced off against each other in a stare down, each turtle glaring at their respective double. "Have fun, boys! Just remember, I'll be watching." Leo somehow felt that that comment was more for the dark turtles than for them. It didn't take long for the silence to break again, with the two Raphaels making the first move (as everybody in the room had expected). 

Raphael lunged forward with his sai, Dark Raphael mirroring him almost perfectly with his monstrous talons, both uttering feral roars of attack at each other. As soon as they clashed, everything went to the dogs. Donnie jabbed forward with his bo only for his double to bat it away as if it was nothing. Dark Mikey started to swing towards the original, but he only hit empty air. Leonardo put his full concentration on the turtle in front of him and finding a break in his defense, only to see that Dark Leonardo was doing the same. At first, it seemed that the whole party was evenly watched by their doppelgangers. As the fight started to drag on, though, it was becoming increasingly clear, to Karai especially, that the Dark Turtles were not faring so well.

Dark Mikey, at first, was very fascinated by how much his double could jump and flip so easily. He even laughed while he swung at the other turtle, mostly swinging just to see Michelangelo jump around some more. After a time, though, he was starting to get aggravated. He wasn't totally sure why, but for some reason, all that flipping around was getting old. He still thought it was amazingly cool, and maybe it was just the thought that Karai was watching him that made it happen, but he actually started trying to get serious. Every time he tried, however, he ended up laughing again. 

The next one up, Dark Donatello, was having much too much fun with his double. He taunted the smarty-pants once about his incurable crush and now he couldn't stop. It took every ounce of concentration and determination he had to keep from bursting out into loud, obnoxious laughter. Each jab from the turtle's bo was easily deflected by the dark turtle' gauntlets, bouncing off with a slight clang. "Oh please. You fight so hard, and for what? She's a human, you know she's got better things to do than deal with pond scum like you." Donnie grit his teeth and swung his bo staff hard in an upward arc, bringing it crashing onto the top of Dark Donnie's head and leaving him disoriented. "Says **you**!" Don swung his staff again, smacking the wood against the side of the other turtle's head and sending him sprawling across the floor. "Teach _you_ who to call pond scum," Donatello said, self-satisfied.

The third dark turtle wasn't far from his younger brother. He huffed and puffed, having been completely winded for a long time now, while Raphael continued to jab, slash, and stab at him. Dark Raphael was angry before, but now, he couldn't find himself feeling anything else. He'd feel the quick rush of fury, lunge and punch as best he could, and then somehow be out of breath again. "Aw, does the baby mutant need a nap? I'll take care of **that**." The dark turtle bared his teeth and charged one last time, which Raphael easily dodged. He gave the guy a good, hard double-fisted slam to the back of his head, which sent him flying a few feet until he landed face-first on the concrete, where he stayed.

Lastly, of course, was the epic fight between the blue leaders. Even if Dark Leo was a smidge thinner than Leonardo, he certainly wasn't lacking in strength. For every hit Leonardo got in, the dark one was able to deliver the same blow with twice as much force. Was there any use in trying to talk to him? Maybe, maybe not. Leo was very on the fence about it. He was just distracted enough about the decision for the other turtle to slam the handle of his blade into Leo's chest. The breath was knocked out of him as he stumbled back, and he just barely had enough time to lift his katanas in time to block the next blow. "What is wrong with you guys?" Dark Leo gave his duplicate a smug lopsided grin. "What do you think? You goody-two-shoes didn't cut it, so we were made to take the top of the city's food chain. So shut it and fight!" The blue turtle swung a roundhouse kick towards his double, but it was caught before he made any contact. Not by Leonardo, but by a single chain thrown from above. 

The chain was yanked back, flipping Dark Leonardo over onto his plastron. He shook himself before turning his head to see what he needed to grind into dust. It was a small group of Foot bots around Karai. "Dark turtles, out! Now!" Fists balling up, Dark Leo turned back to his twin to glare one last time before the Foot bots took over the fighting. Leo watched as Karai leaped out the open window behind her, followed closely by the four beaten dark turtles.

\- 

Once the Foot bots were dispatched (not long at all) the turtles scoured the building for April, only to find her bound and gagged on the opposite end of the building. Her tessen was laying on a box nearby, and both girl and weapon were retrieved quickly. "What happened, guys? I was yelling for almost twenty minutes before those freaks stuck that tape over my mouth!" Hands on her hips, April stared expectantly at the four brothers, all of which were sheepishly quiet. "Ahem, so, uh, why don't we get back to the lair? Sensei's probably worried about us." As soon as everybody realized exactly what that entailed, nobody wanted to argue with Leo. They all jumped into the first manhole they came to, hurtling towards the lair and hoping that there wouldn't be any repercussions for taking so long.

-

The four dark turtles were on the floor, having to clamp their mouths shut to keep from yelping and begging for mercy as they waited for the Shredder's words. They all desperately wished for mercy, but they all had a very good idea that they weren't going to get it. "Karai has told me that each of you failed to take down the turtles tonight, as you explicitly promised me." Dark Leo started to raise his head to say something, but his hothead brother grabbed his mask tails and stuck his forehead back on the floor. His first instinct was to shove him, but thought better of it. He was probably doing him a favor. "Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"  
"No, Master," was the simultaneous response from the four turtles. "Perhaps, then, your obedience is something to be spared. But be warned - I will not hesitate to dispose myself of you personally." Shredder stood, and the noise made all four dark turtles lower themselves as far as they possibly could, holding their breath and hoping that this wouldn't be their last night alive. "All of my soldiers are well-disciplined, and any four of them can replace you in an instant." The armor-clad master walked down the steps to his throne, watching as the four mutants cringed with each. "You four should consider yourselves lucky that I allow you a second chance for redemption."

The Shredder came to a stop in front of the blue-scaled turtle, watching, scrutinizing his every breath. "And should you fail me a second time," he began, roughly grabbing the dark turtle's mask tails and hauling him up to eye level, "I will not make the mistake of giving you another chance." Before he could even end his sentence, Shredder had unsheathed his blades and held them at Dark Leonardo's throat. "Is that understood?" The turtle gulped and carefully nodded his head. He could barely breathe, and he couldn't take his eyes off the blade, or else he'd get himself caught in Shredder's eyes, and he knew if he did that, he'd die, either from fright or the blade in front of him. He knew. He had to do better. He had to do as he was ordered. If he didn't...


End file.
